The Fate of Abstracts Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurologic Surgeons

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the publication rate and time to publication following abstract presentation at a major neurosurgical meeting, namely the 2005 annual meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). We reviewed all 754 abstracts presented at the 2005 CNS annual meeting to determine publication status and identify factors that are associated with publication. A standardized database search was conducted to determine publication status. Predictors of publication were examined. Of the 754 abstracts presented, 383 (50.8%) were published after 5.3 years. The median time to publication was 450 days (range-646 to 1953 days) with 16% being published prior to the meeting. Oral presentations had a publication rate of 64.0% compared to 48.3% for poster presentations. Of the abstracts not published prior to the meeting, 77% were published within 3 years of the meeting. In univariate analysis, neuro-oncology abstracts (OR 1.88; 95% CI 1.34 - 2.64; p < 0.001) and abstracts selected for oral presentation (OR 1.97; 95% CI 1.30 - 2.99; p = 0.001) had a significantly higher likelihood of publication. These associations remained independent in multivariate analysis. Neuro-oncology abstracts (p = 0.004), basic science research (p = 0.003) and abstracts selected for oral presentation (p = 0.036) were published in higher impact factor journals. Half of presentations at the annual CNS meeting will be published in peer-reviewed journals with a median time to publication of 450 days. Neuro-oncology abstracts and those abstracts selected for oral presentation have a significantly higher likelihood of publication.

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Elliott, C. , Mehta, V. , Poon, C. , Oliver, M. and Gourishankar, S. (2016) The Fate of Abstracts Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurologic Surgeons. Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery, 6, 1-8. doi: 10.4236/ojmn.2016.61001.

Received 9 October 2015; accepted 3 January 2016; published 6 January 2016

1. Introduction

2. Materials and Methods

2.3. Identifying Full-Text Publications

2.4. Impact Factor Analysis

The ISI Web of Knowledge citation database (Philadelphia, USA) was used to determine the 2010 impact factor for each journal. Publications in journals not indexed or in journals that did not have an impact factor listed were excluded from the analysis.

2.5. Statistical Analysis

Categorical variables were compared using chi-square test. Continuous variables were reported as means with standard deviations or in the case of outliers as medians. Continuous variables were compared using the t test. To determine predictors of full-text publication, odds ratios and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. All statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS (version 18.0 for Windows).

3. Results

3.2. Publication Rate and Time to Publication

3.3. Journal of Publication and Impact Factor

Articles were published in 121 different journals with 236 (61.4%) of publications in dedicated neurosurgery journals and one-third of publication occurring in either Neurosurgery or the Journal of Neurosurgery. The top 8 journals in which publications occurred and their 2010 impact factors are listed in Table 2. The overall mean impact factor for all publications was 3.319 (0.309 - 53.484). The mean impact factor for publication in dedicated neurosurgery journals was 2.75 compared to a mean impact factor of 3.80 for publications in all other journals.

3.4. Univariate Predictors of Publication

3.5. Multivariate Predictors of Publication and Higher Impact Factor

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

Disclosures

The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper.

Contributions

Author contributions to the study and manuscript preparation include the following. Conception and design: Elliott, Gourishankar, Mehta. Data acquisition: Elliott, Poon, Oliver. Analysis and interpretation of data: Elliott, Gourishankar. Manuscript preparation: Elliott. Critical revision: Gourishankar, Mehta. Study supervision: Gourishankar.

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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